National questionnaire on skills and techniques in pediatric tracheotomy surgery in Turkey.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to determine the differences in surgical preferences of ENT Surgeons in Turkey with regard to pediatric tracheotomy.

DESIGN

Questionnaire study.

PARTICIPANTS

ENT Surgeons.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

The national multiple-choice questionnaire study included a total of 16 questions about physicians technical preferences, different methods and complications in pediatric tracheotomy surgery. It was planned and implemented with the support of a professional survey company (www.surveymonkey.com).

RESULTS

The questionnaire was answered by 591 ENT Surgeons; the percentage of the physicians performing pediatric tracheotomies in the previous year was 59.6%. Forty point four percent (40.4%) of the physicians had not performed tracheotomies in the pediatric age group and 57.9% had not performed tracheotomies in patients under one year old. Seventy point six percent (70.6%) of the physicians who had performed tracheotomies had made vertical skin incisions, 69.5% of them had removed subcutaneous adipose tissue, 81.4% of them had retraction the thyroid isthmus area from their field of view; 83.9% of them had made a vertical incision to the trachea, 82.5% of them had applied a stay suture to the trachea and 4.7% of them had used additional techniques for stoma maturation. The intraoperative mortality, early complication, late complication, and total complication rates were 3.9%, 32.7%, 21.2% and 53.9 respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first large-scale questionnaire study with data on pediatric tracheotomy techniques and the practices of ENT Surgeons at a national level. Common approaches were observed among the.